The issue came to light after former Reuters climate correspondent David Fogarty wrote about it on an insider blog. Fogarty said Ingrassia told him personally he was “skeptical” of global warming, and that after he became deputy editor, “getting any climate change-themed story published got harder.”

Fogarty charged Ingrassia with putting personal politics above scientific truth. He pointed to President Obama as an expert in the science of measuring temperatures for all regions of the planet over a period of centuries and assessing the impact of industrialization on climate change.

Left-wing outlets such as The Guardian, Mother Jones, and Think Progress have pushed the story of Ingrassia’s skepticism toward global warming orthodoxy. An article in the Columbia Journalism Review quoted several Reuters journalists anonymously saying they had been pressured to include more global warming “balance” by including the views of skeptics.

But the case may be more complicated than it seems, since global warming coverage has been declining across all sources. According to the CJR article, The Guardian cut climate change coverage by 21% in 2011, and The New York Times by about 15%.

More recently, The New York Times closed its environmental desk and ended its “Green Blog” after failing to update it for several weeks.